Pyramid of the Sky Pharaoh (GM Reference)

[Warped Savant]

drsparnum wrote:

There are a few references to Neferisis on p47.

I believe this is a typo and it should read Neferuset. If I am mistaken, can someone let me know who Neferisis is.

Page 47, room E14 answers that question for you:

"This is the crypt of Queen Neferuset’s paternal grandmother Neferisis, also a powerful oracle of the Dark Tapestry."

[GM SuperTumbler]

My party is in the middle of book 5, but what I have to post pertains mostly to book 6. I know not many people are using this AP, but maybe this will be of some use to folks in the future.

My party has driven this campaign off the rails for most of the campaign. I always try to offer some latitude for wandering around in a sandbox, but this is probably the one that has been craziest. Early on, they decided that Hakotep was actually a pretty cool guy. They have positioned him as almost a sort of Arthur figure who was wronged by the church of Nethys. They aren't completely opposed to him returning. In Secrets of the Sphinx, they marched into the sightless sphinx and gave the Mask to the Forgotten Pharaoh. I decided that the two portions of Hakotep's soul combined would be mainly interested in finding the 3rd portion, so I had the Forgotten Pharaoh walk into the sky to find the Pyramid.

The result is that they are now at the Slave Trenches working to activate them and waiting for a sign from the returned Hakotep. They aren't fans of the current pharaoh, so they may welcome the return of Hakotep.

Since Hakotep is whole because he has brought all of pieces of his soul together, I'm going to strip him of the Mummy template and restore him to mortality. Probably will give him 2 Mythic Ranks and still have the other undead be undead as he hasn't yet restored them.

[archmagi1]

If you really wanted to get into the nuts and bolts of Hakotep, rebuilding his sorcerer levels as undead bloodline would be thematic in his rebirth.

[drsparnum]

It's a fairly different campaign and will require a lot of work on your part but I believe Hakotep would welcome the PCs for the help and reward the assistance and loyalty (after the PCs complete a quest to fix Hakotep's pyramid after they shoot it out of the sky,to return to his good graces). You now need a battle between the current government and Hakotep + PCs.

Possible roles for the PCs would be an assassination effort against the Ruby Prince or some kind of mass combat battle system. I'm inclined to think it would be easier to do the assassination in the context of D&D but you know your party.

Maybe Hakotep strikes a bargain with the savage elemental clans and while the army is battling those clans as a diversion the PCs must sneak into Sothis, defeat the Risen Guard, and take the current Pharaoh hostage so he can properly abdicate to Hakotep? You can get Khemet III's stats in the Osirion source book. As I recall he is L17.

It is within reason for a party of L16-17 characters to achieve this.

Good luck!

Good references:
https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Osirion
https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Khemet_III

[drsparnum]

I plan a few tweaks to the final section of the final book…Hakotep’s inner sanctum. I’m seeking to give the section some level of time urgency so my players don’t sleep and stock up between each battle. Also, I’m seeking to make Hakotep a bit more proactive in defending his home base.

1) Once the players cross the gates in the air crypt, I will warn them that if they go further turning back will take a miracle. Out of game I want this to be a point of no return, but I recognize I may need to give them some wiggle room if a player dies and no one left alive has the means to bring that person back to life. In game my plan is to require the casting of miracle or wish + succeeding at a DC25 caster level check for living creatures to escape the inner sanctum without defeating Hakotep. The inner sanctum is divided into 3 sections with additional teleport rooms – to up the ante I plan to require one miracle or wish for living creatures to return through each teleport gate. I’m pretty open to the PCs teleporting to a city and buying just about anything off the shelf of the Ultimate Equipment guide but I do want there to ideally be one purchase before heading in and that’s it.
2) I plan to make Hakotep a guy into constructs as a hobby. He needs a hobby, and this seems like a good hobby for the rich and famous of his day, and he seems to like technology and already has a bunch of golems in the room with him. Each evening my players sleep in the inner sanctum Hakotep will send one of his constructs after the PCs. I haven’t worked it out yet but I am imagining accelerating challenges of golems from things like…those set constructs in the adventure path, pantheon golem, a steel predator, a clockwork dragon, a clockwork reliquary (the latter 3 I have the mini for and really want a chance to use them).
3) I will likely need to boost the final encounter just because I have a lot of PCs. But subjectively, if I feel like the PCs took their time getting to Hakotep I plan to further add additional constructs from the list above to make the encounter harder. He’s been working on this stuff since he came back to un-life, and the longer the players take the more productive he will have been.

Another group could also have Neferuset summon an increasing number of things for her encounter and dispatch an escalating number of outsiders at the PCs if the DM feels the players are too slow. I won’t be able to do this because I think my players will face her with just 3 PCs in this particular session but it is an option. Too bad for me too….I sorely wanted to use my huge spawn of chuluthu mini.

[drsparnum]

GM SuperTumbler, I thought about your challenges some more, and here is what I propose assuming you don't want to force it on the rails.

1) Let the party down the Sky Pyramid in book 5 as written,
2) Hakotep will allow the PCs back into his good graces if they help him now repair his broken Sky Pyramid. To do that the party must travel to the lost city of Kho. You'll need to make up most of the content, but Hakotep has some kind of magic doo-dad to give them to make it easier. If you're looking for inspiration this novel may help (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13175620-city-of-the-fallen-sky).
3) Hakotep also needs an army. He asks the PCs to win over the savage elemental clans of Osirion. When the PCs interact with the clans they learn there is a special nexus constructed in the sands of eastern Osirion that create especially thin barriers between the elemental and material planes. This nexus is broken and must be repaired. If the PCs do this they will support Hakotep. Then you can repurpose much of the content from the 4 elemental crypts in book 6 to be the content for this part of the adventure.
4) Hakotep and his flying pyramids and the elemental clans lay siege to Tephu (Hakotep chooses this spot, if he needs to make an example of one city he'd like to pick the one with the closest connection to Nethys). This draws the Osirion army away from Nethys. At this time the PCs need to sneak/deceive/battle their way into the palace in Sothis, defeat the Ruby Prince's guards and capture (alive) the Ruby Prince so he can surrender to Hakotep. I don't want to give a lot of spoilers but there is a Kingmaker adventure you can grab for this battle and re-skin it to Osirion and adjust the power level.

Then...Hakotep triumphs. And true to his word, the PCs receive senior positions in the new Osirion government from Hakotep.

[GM SuperTumbler]

drsparnum, that is all brilliant stuff. Thanks for the thoughts. We are now noodling around the Slave Trenches. I've changed quite a bit of the backstory of the use of the Slave Trenches. Not in their creation, but in their use.

My version of Hakotep and Chisisek built the slave trenches and used them to defend against a Shory invasion. Tef-Naju agreed to be the guardian of the slave trenches until no Shory magic flew over Osirion, thinking that meant until the war was over. What he failed to realize is that once they brought down the first Shory target, they copied the magic to build their own flying pyramids. Since they use the same magic, Tef-Naju was stranded in the slave trenches for millenia.

Right now, they are activating the slave trenches in order to bring down Hakotep's flying pyramid. It seems likely that this will work. They are currently making nice with Tef-Naju and realizing they have his contract.

Once they crash the pyramid, Hakotep will be angry. I've decided that his tri-partite soul has been rejoined, and he is restored to life. He has plans to reconquer Osirion.

This is going to cause some trouble with the party. One of them is a staunch traditionalist who will see Hakotep as a sort of Arthur returned. On the other hand, he is a monk dedicated to Pharasma, so he is not going to be a fan of Hakotep's undead minions.

Another is an archaeologist relic hunter, the kind of fellow Hakotep will likely execute in an exciting way.

Another is an undead hating inquistor of Pharasma who is going to hate the fact that while Hakotep is reborn, all of his ancient friends are now undead.

I'm not sure how the others will feel about it.

[GM SuperTumbler]

Since Hakotep is all in one piece now, I had to create a new version, what I imagine he might have been in life.

Spoilered for length:

This tall man retains his regal bearing even as an undead creature wrapped in the linens of mummification. A blue khepresh crowns his head, and he holds the crook and flail of kingship in his hands.
--------------------
Hakotep I CR 21
XP 409,600
Male fortune-blessed human (Garundi) eldritch knight 10/fighter 1/wizard 9/Archmage 2 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide 142)
LE Medium humanoid (human)
Init +6; Senses true seeing; Perception +20
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 38, touch 21, flat-footed 32 (+8 armor, +3 deflection, +4 Dex, +2 dodge, +2 luck, +5 natural, +4 shield)
hp 309 (20 HD; 9d6+11d10+145)
Fort +20, Ref +17, Will +17; +8 resistance bonus vs. mind-affecting
Defensive Abilities hard to kill; Resist fire 10
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 60 ft.
Melee flail of kings +30/+30/+25/+20 (1d8+29/19-20) or
luck blade (0 wishes) +25/+25/+20/+15 (1d6+24/17-20)
Special Attacks augmented criticals, lightning flash, lucky strike, mythic power (9/day, surge +1d6)
Arcane School Spell-Like Abilities (CL 18th; concentration +27)
At will—feather fall, levitate
Wizard Spells Prepared (CL 18th; concentration +27)
9th—prismatic sphere (DC 28), time stop (2), winds of vengeance[APG]
8th—frightful aspect[UC], mind blank, polar ray, power word stun, stormbolts[APG] (DC 30)
7th—elemental body IV, mass invisibility, mage's sword, prismatic spray (DC 28), waves of exhaustion
6th—chain lightning (DC 28), mass fox's cunning, hellfire ray, greater heroism, last azlanti's defending sword, starfall (DC 27)
5th—overland flight, mass pain strike[APG] (DC 26), suffocation[APG] (DC 24), wall of force (2), wall of light (DC 26), wind blades[ARG] (DC 24)
4th—bit of luck, cloud shape[ARG], greater false life[UM], ice storm (2), unbearable brightness[ACG] (DC 25), web cloud[ARG] (DC 23)
3rd—call the void (DC 24), displacement, fly, haste, greater magic weapon, greater thunderstomp[ACG]
2nd—aggressive thundercloud[ACG] (DC 24), burst of radiance (2, DC 23), invisibility, mirror image, scorching ray (2)
1st—burning hands (DC 22), endure elements, magic missile (4), shocking grasp, vanish[APG] (DC 20)
0 (at will)—detect magic, read magic, resistance, touch of fatigue (DC 19)
Opposition Schools Earth
--------------------
Tactics
--------------------
Before Combat Hakotep casts mage armor and false life on himself every day. As soon as the stone block in area E21 is opened, Hakotep casts bull’s strength, mirror image, and shield.
During Combat Hakotep orders two of his shield guardians to guard him (all attacks against Hakotep take a –2 penalty for each golem adjacent to him) while the other two engage opponents in melee. Thereafter, Hakotep concentrates his attacks on the wearer of the Mask of the Forgotten Pharaoh, preferring to use evocation spells he can cast at range, such as meteor swarm, polar ray, prismatic spray, and chain lighting, while taking advantage of the metamagic abilities of his crook and flail of kings.
Morale The first time Hakotep takes damage in combat, he activates one of his shield guardians’ shield other abilities. If reduced to 100 hit points or fewer, Hakotep casts tar pool to entangle as many of the PCs as possible, or casts mass hold person to slow them down. He then flies to reposition himself in the eastern portion of the room, ordering his shield guardian bodyguards to accompany him, and continues throwing spells at opponents. If reduced to 50 hit points or fewer, Hakotep directs him golems to cover his retreat while he flees to the temple of Set (area E9). There, Hakotep kneels before the altar and beseeches Set for aid: “Father of Darkness! Would you deny your beloved our throne? We call for your aid!” Set does not answer this prayer, and Hakotep makes his final stand in the temple, fighting until destroyed.
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 22, Dex 18, Con 19, Int 29, Wis 11, Cha 13
Base Atk +15; CMB +23 (+25 disarm); CMD 42 (44 vs. disarm)
Feats Arcane Strike, Combat Expertise, Dodge, Elemental Focus (electricity)[APG], Furious Focus[APG], Greater Spell Focus (evocation), Greater Weapon Focus (light flail), Improved Disarm, Iron Will, Power Attack[M], Quicken Spell, Scribe Scroll, Spell Focus (evocation), Steward Of The Great Beyond, Toughness, Weapon Focus (light flail), Weapon Specialization (light flail)
Skills Acrobatics +14 (+26 to jump), Appraise +11, Bluff +21, Climb +8, Diplomacy +20, Disguise +3, Escape Artist +6, Fly +24, Heal +4, Intimidate +23, Knowledge (arcana) +34, Knowledge (engineering) +20, Knowledge (history) +24, Knowledge (nobility) +24, Knowledge (planes) +33, Knowledge (religion) +24, Linguistics +16, Perception +20, Ride +6, Sense Motive +23, Spellcraft +27, Stealth +6, Survival +2, Swim +8
Languages Abyssal, Ancient Osiriani, Auran, Azlanti, Daemonic, Ignan, Infernal, Osiriani, Shory, Terran
SQ amazing initiative, arcane bond (ring of freedom of movement), competent caster[MA], cyclone, extra mythic power[MA], favored, mage strike[MA], spell critical, turn of fate
Combat Gear scroll of reverse gravity, scroll of time stop; Other Gear luck blade (0 wishes), amulet of natural armor +5, belt of physical perfection +6, bracers of armor +8, cloak of resistance +4, crook and flail of kings, khepresh of refuge, mask of the forgotten pharaoh, ring of freedom of movement, gold and emerald necklace (worth 20,000 gp)
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Amazing Initiative (1/round) (Ex) As a free action, use 1 power to gain an extra standard action (can't be used to cast a spell).
Arcane Bond (Ring of freedom of movement) (1/day) (Sp) Use object to cast any spell in your spellbook. Without it, Concentration required to cast spells (DC20 + spell level).
Arcane Strike As a swift action, add +1 damage, +1 per 5 caster levels and your weapons are treated as magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Augmented Criticals (Su) Critical threat ranged of all attacks doubles.
Combat Expertise +/-4 Bonus to AC in exchange for an equal penalty to attack.
Competent Caster (Ex) Concentration checks for arcane spells auto succeed (unless highest level castable).
Cyclone (9 rounds/day, DC 28) (Su) Vortex causes all ranged attacks passing through it to miss, and creatures flying through it must make a Fly skill check or fall.
Earth You must spend 2 slots to cast spells from the Earth school.
Elemental Focus (Electricity) +1 DC to spells that deal damage of the chosen energy.
Energy Resistance, Fire (10) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Fire attacks.
Favored (Ex) +2 luck bonus on all opposed checks, saves, and +1 luck bonus on attack rolls
Furious Focus If you are wielding a weapon in two hands, ignore the penalty for your first attack of each turn.
Greater Spell Focus (Evocation) +1 to the Save DC of spells from one school.
Hard to Kill (Ex) Automatically stabilize when dying, and only die at neg Con x 2.
Improved Disarm You don't provoke attacks of opportunity when disarming.
Lightning Flash (1d6+4 electricity damage, 12/day, DC 23) (Su) 5 ft burst deals electricity dam and dazzles for 1d4 rds (Ref part).
Lucky Strike (1/minute) (Su) Once per minute apply true strike to a single attack.
Mage Strike (Su) As a swift action, use 1 power & a spell for extra melee att (2x spell lev energy dam & att bonus).
Power Attack [Mythic] Use 1 power to eliminate attack penalties of Power attack for 1 min.
Quicken Spell Cast a spell as a swift action. +4 Levels.
Spell Critical (Su) Cast a spell as a swift action when you confirm a critical hit.
Spell Focus (Evocation) Spells from one school of magic have +1 to their save DC.
Steward of the Great Beyond (1/day) As an immediate action, if foe summon/teleports in 30 ft, you gain CL check to block the effect.
Surge (1d6) (Su) Use 1 power to increase any d20 roll by the listed amount.
Turn of Fate (1/day) (Su) Once a day reroll any failed roll.
--------------------

[Warped Savant]

My players concluded our most recent session in an amazing fashion and now I'm trying to decide how Hakotep would respond.

Party is level 17 and consist of:
Paladin of Anubis
Life Oracle of Osiris
Unchained Rogue (Relic Raider)
Arcanist (he can dispell A LOT of spells due to his exploit)

The last session ended with them killing Neferuset so that she'll stay dead and found the teleportation circle. The party read the message on the scrivener’s wall that says "Soon, my beloved" so decided that the best response was to write back "SOON" and press the paladin's mask that looks like Anubis's face into the wall.

So Hakotep is mad.

I'll be using Harder Hakotep and his Golden Guardians. My thought is that he'll be coming to the party rather than waiting for them to come to him. I'll likely have Hakotep arrive right after they clear out the Chariot Track (E19) and he'll be pre-buffed and I'll mostly be using archmagi1's advice of Time Stop, summons and will hopefully be able to seal everyone but the paladin behind a Wall of Force (hopefully others don't move forward before the paladin does... The rogue is the only one I could see doing that, which I could manage).

He'll have the -1 to all of his rolls as I'll consider him to know that Neferuset is dead. I assume they'll kill him, and then they'll have to go through the rest of the rooms to find his sarcophagus so that they can properly end him.

Does anyone see a problem with this? Does this tactic make sense? Can anyone suggest something else he'd do instead?

[increddibelly]

heh you're half a book ahead of my group :-)
I like your solution, seems like a nice storyline. But it has probably played out by now, so how'd it go?

My group is currently fiddling around in the water crypt - I loved that false trap, it took them the better part of a great session to figure that one out. Last night, the rogue got possessed by Nailah's handmaiden - and the group wizard responded by casting dominate person on the rogue, hoping to evict the previous visitor. I thought that was a nice cliffhanger to end the session on, and next time, we're going to focus on a game of Everyone is John Kris which I've been dying to incorporate in a game.

[Warped Savant]

It worked out really well!
Them not having a chance to overly prepare was awesome, Harder Hakotep was significantly harder than I was expecting, so I'd warn against using him in combination with the Golden Guardians (same post) as he very nearly killed the party. (Life Oracle had to use Heal or Mass Heal nearly every turn in order for PCs to not die.)
The paladin was the main one doing damage to Hakotep.
The rogue was working on the guardians due to Hakotep being immune to sneak attack (I forgot to transfer the damage that Hakotep was taking over to the Guardians. But I think that mistake was for the better.)
The arcanist was dispelling Hakotep's spells.
The oracle, as I said, was healing everyone constantly, mostly with Heal of Mass Heal, just to give an idea of how much damage the PCs were taking.

[gamerdork]

Fellow GMS,

Happy Holidays to those celebrating such! I am here looking for some advice, if anyone still reads these threads and is inclined to throw their 2 cents in...

Party in my game is 16th level:
- Hunter with a ridiculously borken cat companion
- Cleric of Sarenrae
- Fighter / Bard (player new to PF when we started but very sharp)
- Mystic Theurge / Wizard / Cleric

They are mid-battle with Neferuset. They'd just killed 1 of the Neshmaal when the theurge prismatic sprayed; the other two were sent to another plane and petrified, leaving Neferuset (who'd made her Will save v insanity) alone in her darkness. The group, although high level, has not figured out the deeper darkness effect is just that. (I gave Neferuset a wand of eyes of the void so she can see within it.) So the theurge summons a movanic deva, on two consecutive rounds; good play by her. As they advanced into the darkness area, they used their antimagic field Sp abilities. It was a bit messy figuring out what areas had the darkness temporarily shut down, but I finally got there, basically giving up when the player said to spread the two devas out to max their antimagic coverage and removing dynamic light lines and giving tokens back their vision.

Here is the problem: as I am reading the spell description... not sure how to tag it so link here:
https://www.aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Antimagic%20Field
...
the relevant section here starts with:
"Summoned creatures of any type wink out if they enter an antimagic field."

So if Deva2 moves within 10' of Deva1, the field should wink out Deva1 while Deva1 is within Deva2's field... right? And I guess the opposite as well?

Well, I guess the bigger problem is that Neferuset is pretty much screwed at this point, since ALL of her abilities and items are no longer magically active. Best I can do is try each turn to get out of the field and cast her most devastating spell. (Already used the Oracle ability that is like mass phantasmal killer; 3 of 5 failed Will but made Fort saves.)

Any GM help or advice is appreciated!
Game on!
- Corey

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Shouldn't they should wink out of existence from their own AMF? Nothing in the description of AMF says casters are immune to their own spell.

[Warped Savant]

Bjørn Røyrvik wrote:

Shouldn't they should wink out of existence from their own AMF? Nothing in the description of AMF says casters are immune to their own spell.

They'd get to roll for spell resistance, but yeah, that would be my thought as well.

[gamerdork]

I ended up retro-ruling that the 2 Movanic Devas both used dispel magic and 1 of them miraculously succeeded on dispelling the deeper darkness. And that if they kicked up AMF again, each would eventually succeed against its own AFM within the same round. But if either crossed its AMF with the other, if the other failed SR it would 'blink out' for 1 round while suppressed then attempt to come back, rolling SR again, etc. The AMF fields were never used again and it remained a pretty epic battle.

REQUEST FOR MORE HELP!
They teleported to the E16 and dispatched the hollow serpent. The curious cleric wandered North and then East - General Tawaret heard her at the west chamber entrance and approached, critting with 1 arrow for like 90 (!) damage. That's where we left off...

Can General Tawaret full attack with her bow while riding the chariot? I would presume YES, since she could have triggered the chariot ability to drive itself for 1 hour.

Game on!
- gamerdork

[TomParker]

Without looking up the details, I would say that yes, she could full attack from the chariot. But I'd look at the rules for penalties for making ranged attacks while mounted. Those may apply here.

[gamerdork]

As usual, they had little problems with the battle except for hit points lost. They have also now curb-stomped Khenpathes the bonepowder ghoul and his Witchfire thugs. Next up, it seems to be on to the grand finale, the encounter with Hakotep!

Here's a question to fellow GMs of this AP - did any of your PC groups fail to destroy Neferuset's jar of unlife? If so, did you have her join Hakotep as directed? If yes, what did you do for her equipment the 2nd time? I mean, when she was destroyed to a pile of dust in E13, they took her equipment...

Game on!
- Corey

[Warped Savant]

gamerdork wrote:

...did any of your PC groups fail to destroy Neferuset's jar of unlife? If so, did you have her join Hakotep as directed? If yes, what did you do for her equipment the 2nd time? I mean, when she was destroyed to a pile of dust in E13, they took her equipment...

I don't remember if my group destroyed the Jar of Unlife or not, but they went straight for Hakotep so there wasn't enough time for Neferuset to come back.

But, if they 'killed' her, didn't destroy the jar, and then camped somewhere and didn't return for a full day (it takes Neferuset 22 hours to go from 0 to 216 hit points, at which point she's no longer helpless) I would 100% have her at Hakotep's side, but she'd either have no gear or gear that Hakotep gave her to help her defend herself.

[gamerdork]

Indeed, they camped (secure shelter) literally right outside the crypt room in which she was rejuvenating, then decided to chill out ANOTHER full day, and so did not discover the used jar until after the 22 hours had passed. Egads.

Appreciate the input. I am sure between them they will have some spells to help her survive more than 1 round.

Game on!

[Warped Savant]

I love seeing the different things that groups do!
One of the PCs in my campaign was a paladin of Anubis and had always described her helmet as being reminiscent of an Anubis head and face. After they killed Neferuset the paladin went over to the scrivener’s wall, took off her helmet, wrote "SOON" in ancient Osiriani, pressed the helmet into the wall so that Hakotep would see the impression of it and then started heading straight for where they figured he was.

I had Hakotep prepare for the fight and then he started going to where they were. Hakotep and his defenders entered E19 right after the fight with General Tawaret, so the group didn't have a chance to prepare any of the spells they had been planning to do for over a book.
Having him sit on his throne waiting for them after a message like that didn't seem right and the group was all VERY happy that he started searching them out. It was one of the best final fights we've had in our campaigns.
Three campaigns later and "SOON" is still referenced.

[Asciiman]

Has anyone had to even do the Khenpathes fight? He's at E18, locked in his own crypt at the final area and frankly, he's behind a stone block and wall that prevent him from even being encountered.

Has anyone had to even have their players fight him and the Witchfires? In order for the PCs to do that, they have to ignore an open hallway, that heads toward Hakotep is, and instead invest time and resources in an entirely optional fight. Did anyone even do it?

For that matter, a large dark brown stone block in the the way and near as I can tell there isn't even a description on how to open it.

Can anyone offer insight into these issues? The fight with Khenpathes? The dark brown block? Or why the PCs would even go there?

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

The PC in my game ignored this fight and many others, so I added them to the final fight against Hakotep- I could see no reason these folks would just sit around in their designated area waiting to be killed when they know there is an intruder in the pyramid.

[Warped Savant]

Asciiman wrote:

Has anyone had to even do the Khenpathes fight? He's at E18, locked in his own crypt at the final area and frankly, he's behind a stone block and wall that prevent him from even being encountered.

Has anyone had to even have their players fight him and the Witchfires? In order for the PCs to do that, they have to ignore an open hallway, that heads toward Hakotep is, and instead invest time and resources in an entirely optional fight. Did anyone even do it?

For that matter, a large dark brown stone block in the the way and near as I can tell there isn't even a description on how to open it.

Can anyone offer insight into these issues? The fight with Khenpathes? The dark brown block? Or why the PCs would even go there?

It's been awhile so I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure my players killed the enemy in E16, put the gem it drops into the depression (described in "Treasure" at the end of E16), found the indication that there was a crypt and, for the sake of having fallen for the secret / fake crypt in book 1 they figured it might be Hakotep's hidden crypt instead of going the obvious way so they smashed through the wall thinking it was a false wall leading to a real door, like how the library room in book 3 had a false ceiling.

Sure, not all groups will go through the steps, or might think "we'll come back to this" but it's not unreasonable for people to check out the hidden area, especially with how some of the other dungeons have been.